9 TASKS FOR 2001 (REDUX)

 

At the turn of the millennium, I made a list of the things I thought were most important to address in the coming decades, and called it "9 Tasks for 2001". They were:

1)    What is the alternative to money as the standard of value?

2)    How to reverse the breakdown of the family in the US?

3)    How to change the anomie of children and teens in our society?  How to revive education?

4)    How to contain spiritual values in American culture maintaining the separation of church and state?

5)    How to educate people to live healthful lives and change healthcare to respond to this?

6)    How to utilize new modes of communication to best serve society and the people in it?

7)    How to manage the impact of multinational corporations on society and limit their impact on American and world politics?

8)    What is the US role in world balance of power?  How to contain North/South relationships and the population bomb?

9)    How to sustain the ecology of the environment and still have economic stability?

Two decades and more have elapsed since this list was created and there are few signs of progress!

 1)    What is the alternative to money as the standard of value?  The development of blockchain and bitcoin technology is heralded as the "new money".  But this is simply about the "place keeping" role of money in the economic system.  Is there a greater value to life which includes economic survival but goes beyond this?  There is little indication that the US or world in general is ready to adjust to a new standard.

2)    How to reverse the breakdown of the family in the US?  The covid pandemic has increased awareness of the family by creating isolation and restrictions for family contact.  It remains to be seen if this will lead to more emphasis on family when the pandemic recedes.  Marriage rates are down, but so are divorce rates.

3)    How to change the anomie of children and teens in our society?  How to revive education?  Covid has been especially cruel on children and teens,  blocking their connection to each other and to active schooling.  The role of children and teens as consumers has expanded to the detriment of their development socially.  This must be addressed actively with the recession of the pandemic.  Will it be?  Education is the future of the society,  yet limited economic resources are dedicated to a broad initiative for public education,  and the emphasis has become increasingly focused on educating wealthy children.

4)    How to contain spiritual values in American culture maintaining the separation of church and state? The collapse of spiritual values in the US was symbolized by the political support of a morally corrupt leader by the majority of religiously affiliated Christian denominations (and some Jewish ones).  The decision to prioritize political influence over spiritual values is the essence of decline in spirituality.  This is augmented by the desire to create large wealthy congregations to the economic benefit of their leaders.  Without spiritual values,  the economic and political ones dominate, leaving the society exposed.  There is little indication that this has changed.

5)    How to educate people to live healthful lives and change healthcare to respond to this?  The most unfortunate aspect of healthcare in the US is its increasing emphasis on economic principles as the guiding force.  This occurs at every level:  individual health is defined in terms of preventing diseases by special expensive tests and treatments,  and by exercise regimens which require gym memberships or expensive home equipment.  In every instance,  the person's health is partly assigned to some outside agent,  at some significant expense.  When illnesses emerge,  they are treated with the most expensive tests, techniques, and medicines rather than the simplest,  because this is what is needed to sustain the economics of the healthcare component of the economy.  And those who do not have "good insurance", or any, are left to fend for themselves and deal with illness with little support,  and be bankrupted when they are forced to use the system under dire circumstances.  The last two decades have seen a drastic expansion of the influence of economic factors in the delivery of healthcare,  while reducing the quality of overall health, and increasing costs dramatically.  This is incorrectly blamed on the expansion of Obamacare, which merely extends the inappropriate costs and services to a wider group,  but does not contain them.  

6)    How to utilize new modes of communication to best serve society and the people in it?  In 2001, the potential benefits of broad social communication on the internet were beginning to be appreciated, but in the ensuing two decades all the negative potential for exploitation by the negative side of human character has been revealed.  The internet permits the public to be exposed to a broad range of positive and negative influences,  socially supportive and criminal, and everything in between.  The need for individuals to learn how to access the positive aspects and avoid the negative is part of the human adaptation of this new technology.  The tendency of politicians and some others to blame the problem on the role of a few dominant corporate entities completely misses the point of the individual role in managing participation in this system.  It is an indication of the lack of understanding of an older generation of politicians unprepared to address the challenges and role of government.  

7)    How to manage the impact of multinational corporations on society and limit their impact on American and world politics?  At the end of the previous millennium, multinational corporations were playing a dominant role in control of many industries, and the political authority of individual nations was weakening.  This was especially true in democratic countries, where the political will was influenced and controlled by financial interests.  This trend has diverged significantly.  China has emerged as a nation-state which asserts the power to control the participation of corporations by restricting their role while baiting them with the large economic potential of its population.  Small nations have little ability to influence the economic power of corporations on their leaders, and even large democracies have substantial undermining of independent political authority by corporate entities.  Corporations are not people,  and sometimes benefit the general public and sometimes exploit components of the population.  The political authority has responsibility to regulate this positive/negative impact,  and is losing its power to do so.

8)    What is the US role in world balance of power?  How to contain North/South relationships and the population bomb?  At the end of WW2, the United States was the dominant power in the world, and as recently as 1991,  the US was declared the leader in "Pax Americana".   In any group situation,  a single leader is always countered by alliances of other participants,  a reality that seems to have been lost on American foreign policy experts.  The failure to explore and develop complex multi-lateral alliances left the opportunities open to others.  Instead,  an ineffective policy built on "encouraging democracies" was totally unproductive.  The result was a declining role for the US in the world,  which the previous 4 years recognized and promised to reverse.  Instead, a more extreme for American autonomy with former allies was linked with alliances based on arms sales and other limited objectives.  The US is now encircled by links between other nations with limited ability to engage them.

9)    How to sustain the ecology of the environment and still have economic stability? Of all the challenges facing the country and the world,  the deterioration of the environment and its support of humanity is the most dire.  This was understood at the turn of the millennium and initially efforts were made among world nations to negotiate changes in economic practices that contribute to this deterioration.  Three basic issues must be addressed by all: 1) control of expanding population demands,  2) transition from fossil fuels to other solar based energy, and 3) reduction in the production and distribution of toxic substances.  All three of these goals negatively impact the expansion of the economies of countries,  and accommodation must be made to transition these changes or social disasters will result.  The inability to create a mutual world wide dialog about this task is distressing.  The emphasis of environmentalists on preserving at all cost, and of producers counter attacking is ineffective in negotiating outcomes.

That so little has been accomplished in 1/5th of the century is truly disturbing.

A SIMPLE GUIDE TO FINDING MEANING IN LIFE

 To live with some intention, each person must find a meaning for his or her life.  Without this meaning life becomes just a series of automatic biological actions,  endlessly repeating.
1. The most common meaning is survival, to find enough to eat and avoid predators and natural disasters successfully.  This is the most basic level of life,  and one that still is the basis for many lives in this country despite the accumulated wealth of the entire country.  Components of the economy contribute to this level of meaning,  and can have significant economic rewards for doing so.  Agriculture and farming, manufacturing and production of goods,  healthcare and production of healing substances, housing and construction, —-all these activities are important contributors to the basic level of survival.
2. The next most common meaning is to be part of a supportive social group.  This group may include family, local community, religious organization,  social organizations, or other groups which share common interests and values.  This is rarely in itself the only meaning a person experiences, but is a very important one as indicated by health measures, and the effort made to sustain it.  It has been terribly fragmented by the recent pandemic and quarantine.  All social and political activity is part of this level of meaning,  and is available to persons at any social or economic level depending on the structure and organization of the society.  
3. For many,  the meaning of life after survival becomes “living the good life”, which means some combination of choices about food, recreation, travel, home and accumulated possessions including clothing.  The definition of “good” varies with economic status, opportunities, ethnic and cultural values,  and personal choice.  But it always implies material accumulation of things. The wide range of this meaning from the exalted life of Pharaohs in Egypt and French 17th century kings to the limited options of minority choices in ghetto communities.  The increased sale of non-durable consumer objects for decoration or entertainment is the most obvious example of this lower end.  With the advent of digital communication, some of this has shifted to selection of digital choices,  which can be delivered by a consistent device, but vary in content.  Though more varied, there is no indication that this provides a “more significant” basis for meaning.
4. All religions provide the next level of meaning in life.  They combine three features:  1) a set of standards for interpersonal behavior in this world, 2) a solution to the questions of how the world came to be, and what happens to the person after death, and 3) a collection of socially ritual behaviors to reinforce commitment to these beliefs.  Religions like Communism provide a similar model,  as do cults and other variant forms.  It is tempting to scale religions along a measure of viability in evolutionary terms,  but the data suggest that other factors are also important.
5. The highest level for meaning in life is the ability to live a life that creates meaning about being alive in the world.  The traditional method for this is to participate in some aspect of arts and culture which articulates an expression of meaning in some formal aspect.  Although much of this can be “accumulated” in #3,  the creation of it goes beyond accumulation,  to a different level.

Everyone must choose the levels in which they participate,  and how they define meaning for themselves.  Failure to do this creates an empty automatic life which is experienced with despair.  On the other hand, an obsessive attachment to a particular mode of meaning,  as in obsessive collecting of specific objects, narrows the range of meaning and leads to emotional frustration in other ways.